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Attitude toward
Attitude toward internet web internet web
sites, online information search, sites
and channel choices for
571
purchasing
Received 10 August 2006
Yoo-Kyoung Seock Revised 22 September 2006
Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors, Accepted 22 September
The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA, and 2006

Marjorie Norton
Department of Apparel, Housing and Resource Management,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to examine the influence of attitudes toward particular clothing web
sites, specifically favorite ones, on information search at those web sites and on the choice to purchase
items from those web sites and from non-internet channels after finding the items at the web sites.
Design/methodology/approach – Using survey data from 414 US college students who had online
shopping experience and favorite clothing web sites that they especially like to visit, hypothesized
relationships among attitude toward internet web sites, online information search and channel choices
for purchasing were tested using path analysis.
Findings – Results showed that participants’ attitudes toward their favorite clothing web sites had a
direct, positive effect on their intentions to search for information at those web sites as well as
intentions to purchase clothing items from those web sites after finding the items there. Additionally,
operating through information-search intentions at the web sites, participants’ attitudes toward those
web sites had an indirect, positive effect on their intentions to purchase clothing items from
non-internet channels after finding the items at the web sites.
Research limitations/implications – Results cannot be generalized to the larger population of
young consumers and to other consumer groups. Future research should include other population
groups.
Practical implications – This research provides insights into how college students’ attitudes
toward internet web sites affect their information search at the web sites and their channel choices for
purchasing. Our results suggest potential benefits of multi-channel retailing for online clothing
retailers targeting US college students and the importance of building effective web sites to elicit those
consumers’ positive attitudes toward the web sites.
Originality/value – This study is the first to investigate young adult online shoppers’ attitude
towards internet web sites and their information search and channel choices for purchasing.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Internet shopping, Purchasing, Information retrieval,
United States of America
Paper type Research paper
Journal of Fashion Marketing and
A growing percentage of US consumers’ shopping and purchasing over recent years Management
Vol. 11 No. 4, 2007
have been taking place through the internet. A related trend has been rapid expansion of pp. 571-586
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
retailers’ direct marketing to consumers via the internet, with sales growth outpacing 1361-2026
traditional retailing (Burns, 2005; Levy and Weitz, 2001). The climb in online sales to DOI 10.1108/13612020710824616
JFMM consumers may reflect compelling advantages of internet shopping. Significant benefits
to consumers of shopping on the internet versus in other retail venues include the vast
11,4 array of alternative products available and the quicker access to alternatives. Along with
benefits as a vehicle for purchasing, the internet offers consumers a powerful means for
searching out product information before making purchases (Doyle, 2003; Gray, 2005).
The internet’s information-rich, interactive nature can increase shopping efficiency by
572 improving the availability of product information, enabling direct multi-attribute
comparisons, and reducing information-search costs (Alba et al., 1997).
The super-diffusion of the internet has also widened consumers’ channel choices for
shopping. Consumers can now choose whether to buy from online or offline channels
after they find information about products in either type of channel. Some consumers
may only browse internet web sites for product information and use other channels
(e.g., brick-and-mortar stores) to buy products discovered at web sites. Others may
sample products in physical stores and then seek better deals online. McKinsey
Marketing Practice (2000) research has indicated that more than 50 percent of apparel
shoppers use multiple channels for clothes shopping and that multi-channel
purchasers spend two to four times more than one-channel purchasers. A
DoubleClick survey of consumers showed that 56 percent of the 1,270 respondents
had used multiple channels for shopping and that web site browsing was a popular
pastime of the multi-channel shoppers which had led to purchases in physical stores by
45 percent of them (Greenspan, 2003). Forrester Research, Inc. (as cited in Kerner, 2004)
reported that 65 percent of US consumers in 2004 were multi-channel shoppers.
JupiterResearch (as cited in Burns, 2005) found that nearly one-half (47 percent) of
internet users who browse web sites to find products end up buying offline. The use of
multiple shopping channels by consumers may behoove retailers to employ multiple
marketing channels in order to be successful in today’s intense competition for
consumers’ dollars. Indeed, many of today’s leading retailers market through more
than one channel (The Economist, 2005). Steinfield (2002) and Zhu and Kraemer (2002)
also found that multi-channel retailing can increase sales and revenues. Despite all this,
no previous research on shopping behavior has examined the antecedents of
consumers’ channel choices for information search and purchasing.
Research on consumer shopping behavior has shown that consumers’ attitudes
toward stores influence their store choices (Kim and Lennon, 2000). It may also be that
consumers’ attitudes toward stores in different retail channels, including internet and
non-internet, are influential in their channel choices for information search and
purchasing. This issue is particularly relevant because of the evidence indicating
consumers’ use of multi-channel shopping strategies at the same time that consumer
shopping on the internet is on the rise. The present study explores the relationship
between attitudes and channel choices by focusing on the effect of consumers’ attitudes
toward particular clothing web sites on their channel choices for purchasing.
Specifically, this study examines the influence of consumers’ attitudes toward their
favorite clothing web sites on their intentions to search for information at those web
sites and to buy items from those sites and from non-internet channels after finding the
items at the web sites. The study relies on the notion advanced by Ajzen and Fishbein
(1980) that behavioral intention is a key predictor of future behavior; for example, the
stronger consumers’ intentions to purchase at a certain store, the more likely they
would purchase at that store.
With the increasing use of the internet as shopping medium, young consumers,
particularly college students aged 18 to 22, are becoming the internet’s “hottest”
market and a prime source of future growth in online sales (Silverman, 2000). College Attitude toward
students have greater internet access than most other population segments (Kim and
LaRose, 2004), with 92 percent of college students own a computer and 93 percent
internet web
access the internet (Harris Interactive, 2002). Their online spending exceeds that of any sites
other demographic group in the USA (O’Donell and Associates, LLC, 2004). Roemer
(2003) noted that US college students’ online purchases came to $1.4 billion in 2002
following a 17 percent increase over the previous three years. Clothing is one of their 573
most popular internet shopping categories: 25 percent have bought clothing online
(Case and King, 2003). In this vein, our study focuses on college-student internet
shoppers 18-22 years old, with favorite clothing web sites that they especially like to
visit to obtain information about clothing products or stores and/or to buy clothing.
Our research sample includes only consumers with favorite clothing web sites because
consumers with favorite web sites presumably have sufficient online shopping
experience to have informed beliefs and attitudes about web sites. In addition, the
construct of favorite clothing web sites was used to give our survey respondents
familiar referents when answering questions about particular clothing web sites. The
use of a sample composed of only consumers with favorite clothing web sites was to:
.
avoid obscuring the research results by including respondents without enough
exposure to internet shopping to have informed beliefs and attitudes about web
sites; and
.
enable measurement of the effect of attitudes toward web sites on information
search at the web sites and purchase from internet and non-internet channels.
In addition, our research excludes the non-married of these under the assumption that
married and non-married students’ lifestyles are sufficiently different to result in
distinct consumer behavior (Nielsen/NetRatings, 2003).

Theoretical background and research hypotheses

Consumers’ shopping and purchasing behavior has changed as the number of vendors
available to them via the internet and other means has grown (Korner and
Zimmermann, 2000). The internet offers new customer-retention possibilities through
the management of relationships between marketers and consumers owing in part to
consumers’ access through the internet to more product and service information and a
wider range of products than they would have otherwise. Despite the internet’s
potential utility as a customer-retention medium for marketers, little empirical research
has addressed the role of internet web sites in retaining customers.
Research has indicated that consumers’ attitudes toward stores are a good predictor
of their shopping behavior at those stores, including information search (Blackwell
et al., 2001; Duncan and Olshavsky, 1982), patronage (Monroe and Guiltinan, 1975;
Moye and Kincade, 2003), and purchase intention (Evans et al., 1996). In addition,
researchers have found a positive relationship between consumers’ attitudes toward
online shopping and their purchasing through the internet (Goldsmith and Goldsmith,
2002; Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999; Kim et al., 2003; Shim et al., 2001;
Watchravesringkan and Shim, 2003). In light of consumers’ use of multiple
shopping channels for information search and purchasing, it may also be that
consumers with favorable attitudes toward internet retailers’ web sites sometimes use
the sites solely to find information about products they buy from other channels. The
attainment of favorable consumer attitudes toward an internet retailer’s web site may
JFMM be crucial to the retailer’s customer retention. On the basis of consumer research and
theory, we formulated several hypotheses about consumers’ attitudes and shopping
11,4 behavior with respect to the internet (see Figure 1). As described below, each
hypothesis was specifically framed in relation to favorite clothing web sites, and each
was tested using survey data from college students with favorite clothing web sites.
The theories of planned behavior and reasoned action propose that attitude is an
574 immediate determinant of intention to perform a behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980);
for example, the more positive the attitudes of consumers toward a brand or store, the
higher their intentions to buy the brand or at the store. Research has shown that
consumers’ attitudes toward stores positively influence their information-search
behavior at those stores (Blackwell et al., 2001; Duncan and Olshavsky, 1982). In
combination with the theorized relationship between attitude and intention to perform
a behavior, these findings imply that the more positive the attitudes of consumers
toward a store, the stronger would be their intentions to search for information at the
store. In the context of internet shopping, Shim et al. (2001) found that consumers’
attitudes toward such shopping had a positive influence on their intentions to use the
internet for information search. In addition, Watchravesringkan and Shim (2003) found
that consumers’ use of the internet for information search was positively affected by
their attitudes toward the processing speed and transaction security of web sites where
they shopped. The theoretical and empirical literature cited above is the basis for our
proposition that consumers with favorable attitudes toward web sites will be inclined
to search for information at those sites. The following hypothesis expresses this
proposition in relation to favorite clothing web sites:
H1. Consumers’ attitudes toward their favorite clothing web sites will have a
positive effect on their intentions to search for information about clothing
items at those web sites.
Consumers engage in information search to reduce uncertainty about the sources,
prices, performance, and other aspects of products. Consumers’ information search has
been shown to predict their purchase intentions by mediating the relationship between
purchase intentions and attitudes toward a store or brand (Shim et al., 2001). Owing to
the internet’s information-intensive nature (Fortune, 1998) and power as an

Figure 1.
Proposed model and
research hypotheses
information-search vehicle (Doyle, 2003; Gray), Klein (1998) posited that Attitude toward
information-search processes are an important component of consumers’ internet internet web
shopping behavior. Shim et al. found that consumers’ information search on the
internet was the key predictor of their intentions to purchase through this medium. sites
This finding may suggest that the more consumers intend to search for information
about clothing via the internet, the stronger will be their intentions to buy clothing
items from internet web sites. This notion is the basis for the second hypothesis: 575
H2. Consumers’ intentions to search for information about clothing items at their
favorite clothing web sites will have a positive effect on their intentions to
purchase clothing items from those web sites.
Moon (2004) noted that consumers’ information search in one medium does not
necessarily lead them to purchase through the same medium. Some consumers may
use the internet only as an information-search tool. They may browse web sites to
obtain product information and go to brick-and-mortar stores or other channels to buy
products they found on the web sites (Moon, 2004). This scenario is a real possibility,
given that many consumers use multiple channels for shopping and correspondingly
many retailers maintain multiple channels within their companies (e.g., internet, print
catalogs, and brick-and-mortar stores) to increase sales and promote customer
retention (Greenspan, 2003). Although intention to search for information at favorite
clothing web sites may lead to purchasing from those sites, intention to search for
information at favorite clothing web sites could lead as well to using channels besides
those web sites for purchasing items found at the web sites. The third hypothesis
examines this possibility:
H3. Consumers’ intentions to search for information about clothing items at their
favorite clothing web sites will have a positive effect on their intentions to
purchase clothing items from channels other than internet clothing web sites
after finding the items at their favorite clothing web sites.
Researchers agree that attitudes play a major role in shaping behavioral intentions
(Evans et al., 1996; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Shim and Drake, 1990; Shim et al., 2001).
Evans et al. (1996) found that consumers’ attitudes toward shopping positively affected
their shopping-center patronage intentions. Shim and Drake’s (1990) study revealed a
positive effect of consumers’ attitudes toward mail-order purchasing on their
intentions to buy clothing through mail order. Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky (1999) found
that consumers’ attitudes toward an internet store positively influenced their
willingness to purchase from that store. Shim et al. (2001) showed that consumers’
attitudes toward internet shopping positively affected their intentions to purchase via
the internet. These findings of a direct effect of attitudes toward internet shopping on
intentions to purchase from the internet are consistent with the reasoned action and
planned behavior theories, which hold that attitude is a determinant of behavioral
intentions (Blackwell et al., 2001). The attitude-purchase intention connection reported
in the literature led to the fourth hypothesis:
H4. Consumers’ attitudes toward their favorite clothing web sites will have a
positive and direct effect on their intentions to purchase clothing items from
their favorite clothing web sites after finding the items at those sites.
JFMM Consumers’ perceptions of one type of retail channel may influence their
perceptions of other retail channels, which in turn may influence their shopping
11,4 behavior. In this vein, Lohse and Spiller (1998) argued that the reputation of a
company’s physical store may positively influence consumers’ perceptions of the
company’s online store and vice versa. Just as attitudes toward favorite clothing
web sites may affect intentions to purchase from those sites, attitudes toward
576 those web sites may affect intentions to use other channels to purchase items
found at the web sites, should consumers favor offline purchasing. The fifth
hypothesis explores this idea:
H5. Consumers’ attitudes toward their favorite clothing web sites will have a
positive and direct effect on their intentions to purchase clothing items from
channels other than internet clothing web sites after finding the items at their
favorite clothing web sites.

Methods
Instrument
A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data on the research variables.
The variables are attitude toward favorite clothing web sites, intention to search for
information from favorite clothing web sites, intention to purchase clothing items from
favorite clothing web sites, and intention to purchase clothing items from channels
other than internet web sites.
The questionnaire began with forced-choice questions about each respondent’s
age, gender, and student and marital status. Respondents were also asked whether
they had favorite clothing web sites and, if so, to name them. The responses to
those questions were used to screen out students who did not meet the sample
criteria (i.e. married internet shoppers, not aged 18 to 22, with no favorite clothing
web sites). The next part of the questionnaire asked respondents to evaluate the
relative importance of several attributes of clothing web sites in general and to
indicate their perceptions of the attributes of their favorite clothing web sites, using
the same 36 measurement items for both (see Table I). Of the 36 items, 28 were
modified from ones used in previous studies on web site characteristics (Childers
et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2000; Shim et al., 2001; Szymanski and Hise, 2000) and eight
were created by the researchers. The relative importance of clothing web site
attributes was measured on a scale ranging from “not important at all” (1) to “very
important” (4), and perceptions of favorite clothing web sites’ attributes were
measured on a scale ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (4).
The responses on the relative importance of clothing web site attributes and on
attributes of favorite clothing web sites were used to derive a measure of each
respondent’s attitude toward her or his favorite clothing web sites. The attitude
measure for each respondent was computed using Fishbein’s multi-attribute attitude
model, A ¼ Sei bi where ei is the relative importance of a web site attribute and bi
the degree to which the favorite clothing web sites were believed to provide the
attribute (Blackwell et al., 2001).
The final part of the questionnaire asked about intentions to search for information
at favorite clothing web sites and intentions to purchase clothing from those sites and
from places besides internet clothing web sites. A scale from very unlikely (1) to very
likely (4) was used to measure each type of intention. Respondents were asked how
likely, within the next six months, they were to:
 Attitude toward
Relative Favorite
Attributes importance web sites internet web
1. I can easily browse the web site 3.48 3.42
sites
2. I can shop and place orders quickly 3.31 3.43
3. It offers many different brands 2.50 2.28
4.
5.
It offers many different products
I can easily find what I want
2.96
3.51
3.33
3.39
577
6. It gives information about the fabrics and care instructions for the
products 2.46 2.74
7. It shows all the sizes available for each product 3.51 3.45
8. It shows all the colors available for each product 3.59 3.49
9. It gives up-to-date information about products 3.24 3.15
10. It tells the policy for shipping and handling of products 3.40 3.40
11. Paying for products is easy 3.37 3.42
12. I can track the status of my order 3.34 3.18
13. I know that information I give about myself is kept confidential 3.77 3.45
14. I can quickly receive items I order 3.44 3.27
15. It gives detailed written descriptions of products 3.23 3.20
16. It has the brands I like 3.11 3.41
17. I can see and hear new things on the web site 2.61 2.78
18. It’s fun to visit 2.62 3.19
19. The different screens come up quickly 3.31 3.15
20. The screens are not cluttered 3.15 3.20
21. I can easily follow the search path on the screen 3.13 3.28
22. I can easily compare competitors’ products 2.49 2.14
23. I can get personal sales assistance by e-mail or 1-800 phone numbers 2.90 3.07
24. I can re-check that my order is correct 3.41 3.31
25. I know my credit card number won’t be stolen 3.90 3.49
26. If I want to return a product I’ve bought on the web site, I will get my
money back quickly 3.58 3.21
27. It uses sound to describe products 1.45 1.82
28. It tells the prices of products 3.81 3.56
29. It has good quality photos of products 3.73 3.47
30. I can get to the web site quickly 3.41 3.43
31. I can return products if I am not happy with them 3.68 3.38
32. Information I provide is confidential 3.82 3.48
33. It tells about follow-up services 2.84 2.92 Table I.
34. It plays music 1.27 1.85 Mean values for
35. It truthfully shows the color of the products 3.64 3.35 importance of clothing
36. It has a sizing chart 3.32 3.26 web site attributes and
perceived attributes of
Note: The possible range of the score for each item is 1-4 favorite clothing web sites

.
seek information about clothing items at their favorite clothing web sites;
.
purchase clothing items from their favorite clothing web sites after finding the
items at those web sites; and
.
purchase clothing items from places other than internet clothing web sites after
finding the items at their favorite clothing web sites.

Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) stressed the importance of specifying the time frame when
measuring behavioral intention. All the items to measure information-search and
JFMM purchase intention were modified from ones used by Shim et al. (2001). The content
validity of the questionnaire was assessed through examination by a panel of five
11,4 experts and through pilot testing with undergraduates. Changes were made to clarify
or delete some statements in the instructions and questions according to
recommendations or comments of the experts and pilot-study respondents. The
questionnaire and research plan were submitted to our university’s Institutional
578 Review Board and judged to be exempt from review.

Data collection and respondent profile

The measurement instrument was sent by e-mail as a self-administered online
questionnaire to a systematic random sample of 15,000 students at two major eastern
US universities. A second e-mailing of the questionnaire followed a week later. A total
of 1,344 questionnaires were returned for a 9 percent response rate. Of the 1,344
respondents, 60.4 percent were female. The majority of them were 18 to 22 (72.2
percent), undergraduate (79.2 percent) and single (91 percent). After eliminating those
completed incorrectly or by students who did not meet the sample criteria, 414
remained for data analysis and hypothesis testing. These 414 questionnaires included
some that lacked responses to a few questions but were deemed useable, causing
variation in the number of observations across different parts of the analysis. The 414
respondents were 18 to 22 year-old, non-married undergraduate or graduate students.
The majority were females (74.9 percent) and undergraduates (98.6 percent). The age
distribution was 7.2 percent aged 18, 22.0 percent aged 19, 28.7 percent aged 20, 25.6
percent aged 21, and 16.4 percent aged 22.

Results
Preliminary data analysis
Cronbach’s alpha values were computed to assess the reliability of the 36-item scales
measuring the relative importance of clothing web site attributes and the perceptions
of favorite clothing web site attributes. On the basis of the respective alpha values of
0.89 and 0.92 for these two scales, each was deemed sufficiently reliable for use. Table I
shows the mean values obtained for the 36 items used to measure the relative
importance of clothing web site attributes and the perceived attributes of favorite
clothing web sites.
As to purchase intentions within six months after finding clothing items at favorite
clothing web sites, 62 percent and 79 percent of the respondents, respectively, said they
were likely or very likely to buy clothing from their favorite clothing web sites and
from places other than the internet.

Hypothesis testing
Path analysis was used to test the five hypotheses stated previously. Two causal path
models were postulated (see Figure 1) to examine respondents’ choice to purchase
clothing from internet channels and from non-internet channels after information
search on the internet. The first path model was configured with:
. attitude toward favorite clothing web sites as a cause of information-search and
purchase intentions at those web sites; and
.
both attitude toward favorite clothing web sites and intention to search for
information at those web sites as causes of intention to purchase items from
favorite clothing web sites after finding the items at those sites.
The second path model was configured with: Attitude toward
.
attitude toward favorite clothing web sites as a cause of intention to search for internet web
information at those web sites and of intention to purchase clothing items from
non-internet channels after finding the items at favorite clothing web sites; and
sites
.
both attitude toward favorite clothing web sites and intention to search for
information at those web sites as causes of intention to purchase clothing items
from non-internet channels after finding the items at favorite clothing web sites. 579
The first path model addressed H1, H2, and H4 (see Table II for results). The results
support H1, which predicted a positive effect of attitude toward favorite clothing web
sites on information-search intention at those web sites. The path between these two
constructs is positive (b ¼ 0:17) and significant (t ¼ 3:42, p , 0:001). The regression
model for testing the effect of attitude on information-search intention is also
significant, Fð1; 412Þ ¼ 11:68, p , 0:01. Thus, the respondents’ attitudes toward their
favorite clothing web sites had a positive effect on their intentions to search for
information at those web sites. The results also support H2 and H4. H2 predicted that
intention to search for information at favorite clothing web sites would have a positive
effect on intention to purchase from those web sites. The path between these two
constructs is positive (b ¼ 0:24) and significant (t ¼ 4:95, p , 0:001). Thus, intention
to search for information at favorite clothing web sites had a positive influence on
intention to purchase from those sites. H4 predicted that attitude toward favorite
clothing web sites would have a positive and direct effect on intention to purchase from
those web sites. The path between these two constructs is positive (b ¼ 0:18) and
significant (t ¼ 3:71, p , 0:001). Thus, the respondents’ attitudes toward their favorite
clothing web sites had a positive, direct impact on their intentions to purchase clothing
items from those web sites after finding the items at the sites. Also note that the
regression model used to test H2 and H4 is significant, Fð2; 411Þ ¼ 22:79, p , 0:001.
Having found that attitude toward favorite clothing web sites directly affected
information-search intention at those web sites (b ¼ 0:17) and that information-search
intention at favorite clothing web sites directly affected purchase intention from those
web sites (b ¼ 0:24), the indirect effect of attitude toward favorite clothing web sites on
intention to purchase from those sites via information-search intention was calculated
(b ¼ 0:17 * 0:24 ¼ 0:04). According to Pedhazur (1997), a correlation between an
exogenous variable and an endogenous variable, or between two endogenous

Standardized
Model coefficient (b) t-value
a
Path 1 Intercept 14.82 *
Attitude toward favorite clothing web sites 0.17 3.42 *
Path 1b Intercept 3.92 *
Information-search intention at favorite clothing web sites 0.24 4.95 *
Attitude toward favorite clothing web sites 0.18 3.71 *
Notes: a The predictor variable is attitude toward favorite clothing web sites; the dependent variable Table II.
is intention to search for information at favorite clothing web sites; b the predictor variables are Path analysis results:
intention to search for information at favorite clothing web sites and attitude toward favorite clothing path model 1 (H1, H2,
web sites; the dependent variable is intention to purchase from favorite clothing web sites; * p , 0:001 and H4)
JFMM variables, is composed of a direct effect (DE) and an indirect effect (IE); that is, the sum
of DE and IE is the total-effect coefficient. Following Pedhazur, the total effect of
11,4 attitude toward favorite clothing web sites on purchase intention from those web sites
was calculated by summing the direct and indirect effects (b ¼ 0:18 þ 0:04 ¼ 0:22).
Also note that the overall path model is significant in explaining the effects of attitude
toward favorite clothing web sites on both information-search intention and purchase
580 intention at those web sites.
The second path model addressed H1, H3, and H5 (see Figure 2). The results support
H3, which predicted that intention to search for information at favorite clothing web sites
would have a positive effect on intention to purchase from channels other than internet
clothing web sites (see Table III). The path between these two constructs is positive
(b ¼ 0:23) and significant (t ¼ 4:77, p , 0:001). Thus, the respondents’ intentions to
search for information at their favorite clothing web sites had a positive effect on their

Figure 2.
Path-analytic model 1:
relationship of attitude
toward favorite clothing
web sites to intention to
search for information at,
and to purchase from,
favorite clothing web sites

Standardized
Model coefficient (b) t-value

Path 2a Intercept 14.75 * *

Attitude toward favorite clothing web sites 0.17 3.40 *
Path 2b Intercept 6.80 * *
Information-search intention at favorite clothing web sites 0.23 4.77 * *
Attitude toward favorite clothing web sites 0.06 1.20
Notes: a The predictor variable is attitude toward favorite clothing web sites; the dependent variable
Table III. is intention to search for information at favorite clothing web sites; b the predictor variables are
Path analysis results: intention to search for information at favorite clothing web sites and attitude toward favorite clothing
path model 2 (H1, H3, web sites; the dependent variable is intention to purchase from channels other than the internet
and H5) clothing web sites; * p , 0:01; * * p , 0:001
intentions to purchase clothing items from channels other than internet clothing web Attitude toward
sites after finding the items at their favorite clothing web sites. As shown in Table III, the
results do not support H5 (t ¼ 1:20, p . 0:05). H5 predicted a positive and direct effect
internet web
of attitude toward favorite clothing web sites on intention to purchase clothing items sites
from channels other than internet clothing web sites after finding the items at the
favorite web sites. The lack of support for H5 indicates that the respondents’ attitudes
toward their favorite clothing web sites did not directly influence their purchasing from 581
non-internet channels. The regression model for testing H3 and H5 is nevertheless
significant, Fð2; 407Þ ¼ 13:42, p , 0:001. The regression model for testing H1 under the
second path model is also significant, Fð1; 408Þ ¼ 11:56, p , 0:01. Recall that H1
predicted a positive effect of attitude toward favorite clothing web sites on
information-search intention at those web sites. The regression results indicate that
the effect of attitude toward favorite clothing web sites on information-search intention
at those sites is positive (b ¼ 0:17) and significant at the 0.001 level.
Having found that attitude toward favorite clothing web sites directly affected
information-search intention at those web sites (b ¼ 0:17) and that information-search
intention at the favorite web sites directly affected intention to purchase from
non-internet channels (b ¼ 0:23), the indirect effect of attitude toward favorite clothing
web sites on intention to purchase from channels other than internet clothing web sites
was calculated (b ¼ 0:17 * 0:23 ¼ 0:04). Then, the total effect of attitude toward
favorite clothing web sites on intention to purchase from non-internet channels was
found by summing the direct and indirect effects (b ¼ 0:06 þ 0:04 ¼ 0:10). Note,
however, that the overall path model is not significant in explaining the effects of
attitude toward favorite clothing web sites on information-search intention at those
web sites and on purchase intention from channels besides internet clothing web sites.

Discussion, implications, and limitations

The discussion of results begins with observations about patterns in the research data.
The data shown in Table I on the relative importance of clothing web site attributes and
on perceived attributes of favorite clothing web sites suggest attributes that clothing
retailers’ web sites should possess to attract college students. The respondents in this
study put relatively high importance on such attributes as the following: easy
navigability and payment; provision of color, size, price, and other product information;
allowance for order tracking and return of unwanted items; and security of credit-card
numbers and personal information. As seen in Table I, the mean values for the responses
on relative importance of clothing web site attributes generally track with those for
perceived attributes of favorite clothing web sites: Respondents tended to rate their
favorite web sites most (least) highly in the attributes they considered most (least)
important. The consistency between these two sets of ratings has the unsurprising
implication that college students tend to favor clothing web sites perceived to have
attributes they consider important, and it also lends support to types of attributes that
retailers should incorporate in their web sites. An attribute that departs from the pattern
just noted is “fun to visit.” Our respondents seemed to put little importance on web sites
being fun, but rated their favorite web sites rather high in this regard. Also worth noting
is that the respondents neither valued the offering of many different brands in a web site
nor viewed their favorite web sites as flush in brand variety; however, they rated the
favorite web sites rather high in carrying their preferred brands. The success of a
clothing web site aimed at college students may depend more on carrying select brands
JFMM that appeal to this market segment than on carrying a large selection of brands. A
retailer would, of course, need to conduct market research to learn the preferred brands
11,4 and effective means for promoting them.
As noted earlier, 62 percent and 79 percent of the respondents, respectively, said
they were likely or very likely to buy clothing items from their favorite clothing web
sites and from non-internet places after finding the items at the favorite web sites.
582 These data imply that the majority of the respondents (79 percent) were multi-channel
shoppers, and retailers’ web sites serve different functions for consumers: Some
consumers may use the sites for both information search and purchase, and some may
use them only for information search about products they buy elsewhere. Either way
may give a retailer opportunities to attract customers if the retailer operates both
internet and non-internet channels; however, although the data imply pervasive loyalty
intentions among the research participants with respect to their favorite clothing web
sites, caution is needed in inferring loyalty from the data on non-internet channels.
Clothing brands offered at a web site may be available in various retail venues, not all
of which belong to the web site owner, and given the fashion element of clothing, styles
similar to ones offered at a web site may be available through various retailers’ print
catalogs and brick-and-mortar stores. For consumers’ loyalty to extend from a
multi-channel retailer’s web site to its offline channels, the retailer may need at the least
distinctive private-label merchandise with a well-known brand.
Turning to the results from hypothesis testing, the major conclusions are as follow.
The research participants’ attitudes toward their favorite clothing web sites had a
direct, positive effect on their intentions to search for information at those web sites as
well as intentions to buy clothing items from those web sites after finding the items at
the web sites. Second, the participants’ intentions to search for information at their
favorite clothing web sites had a direct, positive effect on their intentions to buy
clothing items from those web sites and from non-internet channels after finding the
items at the web sites. Finally, operating through information-search intentions at their
favorite clothing web sites, the research participants’ attitudes toward those web sites
had an indirect (but not direct), positive effect on their intentions to buy clothing items
from non-internet channels after finding the items at the web sites (see Figure 3).

Figure 3.
Path-analytic model 2:
relationship of attitude
toward favorite clothing
web sites to information
search intention at favorite
clothing web sites and
intention to purchase from
channels other than the
internet
The result of this study provide empirical support for the theory of planned behavior Attitude toward
and reasoned action in an e-commerce context, as well as evidence on an extensive set
of relationships among pertinent variables. Given the significant relationships found
internet web
among the examined variables under the two path models we used, the analysis sites
process followed in this research appears to be a meaningful way to predict online
consumer behavior and enhance understanding of consumers’ channel choices for
information search and purchasing. In addition, the results suggest that a retailer’s 583
web site can be an important customer-retention medium. From a practical standpoint,
the results underline the importance to a college student-targeted online clothing
retailer of incorporating attributes in its web site that will elicit college students’
positive attitudes toward the web site. Students’ attitudes toward a clothing web site
may not only affect their use of the web site for finding information about clothing
products, but also bear on the students’ decisions to become paying customers at the
web site after finding clothing items there. The positive effect of attitudes toward
clothing web sites on intentions to purchase from those sites is reinforced by the direct,
positive effect of information-search intentions at web sites on intentions to purchase
from them. Enticing students to visit a clothing retailer’s web site for information
appears to raise the likelihood of their buying from the site. In this way, a retailer
should view information search and purchase at its web site as interdependent and
should build into the site the capability to easily move between the information-search
and purchasing modes.
On the other hand, recall our findings that most of the research participants were
multi-channel shoppers and that, via information search at web sites, their attitudes
toward the web sites had an indirect, positive effect on their intentions to buy clothing
items offline after finding the items at the web sites. Thus, college students’
information search at a clothing web site does not guarantee that, when they buy
clothing they find at the web site, the purchase will be from that web site. Various
factors can account for offline purchasing of products found online. Some in the case of
purchasing in physical stores are desires to save on delivery costs and avoid waiting
for deliveries (The Economist, 2005). A factor specific to clothing is many consumers’
desire to touch and try on garments before deciding to buy them.
Our results related to purchasing imply potential benefits of multi-channel retailing.
Lacking opportunities for sales to students who buy offline after finding clothing items
at web sites, internet-only clothing retailers may end up feeding the sales of
non-internet competitors: Students who find clothing items at a web site may be able to
go to offline channels and find styles similar to ones at the web site. In contrast, an
internet retailer that also operates offline channels could capture students’ interest
through product information in its web site and garner sales at both the web site and
the alternative channels. Such could improve the chances of creating a large cadre of
customers who buy online, offline, or both. Even if some products are
internet-exclusive, as true of clothing, information in a retailer’s web site may pique
shoppers’ interest in the retailer’s products and lead them to seek out and buy
garments from the retailer’s offline channels (assuming the web site visitors know of
the offline channels and have access to them). An internet retailer with offline channels
may find it useful to include in its web site prominent information about its other
locations; however, the retailer must take care to avoid the impression that purchasing
from the web site is problematical, an impression that could negatively influence
visitors’ attitudes toward the web site. If a multi-channel retailer offers some products
that are internet-exclusive and others that are exclusive to its non-internet channels,
JFMM the retailer should carefully balance the numbers and types of these products
advertised and sold through its different channels. An appropriate balance may help
11,4 attract both multi-channel and single-channel customers without frustrating, and
jeopardizing sales to, either group.
This study provides insights into how college students’ attitudes toward web sites
affect their information search at the web sites and their channel choices for
584 purchasing, but like any study, it has limitations. The inclusion of only students aged
18 to 22 at two US universities limits the ability to generalize the results to the larger
population of young consumers and to other consumers. And, despite drawing the
sample from students at two large universities in widely separated locations, the
results may not represent all US college students. Results might differ for students at
other universities because of such factors as socio-cultural differences and varying
access to the internet. Research using samples from different universities is needed to
provide evidence to verify our findings. It would be useful as well to conduct studies
with samples of different age groups.
Because some internet retailers do not operate offline channels, we asked respondents
their intentions to purchase from non-internet places in general rather than non-internet
places belonging to the owners of the respondents’ favorite web sites. The form of the
question may have contributed to the result that attitudes toward favorite clothing web
sites did not directly affect intentions to use non-internet channels to buy clothing items
found at the favorite web sites. Future research could address the effect of consumers’
attitudes toward web sites on their purchase from offline channels operated by the
owners of the web sites. Furthermore, we examined two general types of retail channels,
internet web sites and non-internet channels, but did not distinguish between web sites
that are among individual retailers’ various channels and ones that are retailers’ only
channels. Some retailers with online stores market only through that medium and others
market through more diverse channels. In addition, internet retailers that also operate
physical stores vary in the numbers and locations of those stores. The upshot is that
consumers have different opportunities to find and purchase the products of different
types of multi-channel retailers. For this reason, it would be useful to examine the
relationships among consumers’ attitudes toward internet web sites, their search for
information at those web sites, and their purchase from those web sites and from the
different types of channels operated by the owners of the web sites.

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Corresponding author
Yoo-Kyoung Seock can be contacted at: yseock@fcs.org

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